Kingdom Come

“Tshepo Masango Chéry’s Kingdom Come is a fascinating exploration of Christianity as a subversive, anti-imperial force in the twentieth century. With South Africa as generative source, Masango Chéry follows a circuitry of individuals and ideas connecting Africa to the Caribbean and North America, including Ethiopianism, the Garvey movement, and the African Orthodox Church. As such, Kingdom Come is a signal contribution across multiple registers that include African diasporic, South African, Black liberation, and religious studies.” - Michael A. Gomez, Silver Professor of History, New York University

“Tshepo Masango Chéry’s Kingdom Come centers Africa and Africans in an expansive nineteenth- and twentieth-century black internationalist religious movement that laid the groundwork for Bishop Desmond Tutu and Reverend Allan Boesak’s liberationist ‘theologies of refusal’ in the global anti-apartheid struggle. Kingdom Come is a refreshing rejoinder to insular South African histories disconnected from the rest of the African continent, instead centering South Africa in the multidirectional flows of Christian-identified black peoples, foundational religious institutions, and liberationist ideologies to and from southern, and eastern Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean.” - Robert Trent Vinson, author of The Americans Are Coming!: Dreams of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa

“In Kingdom Come, Tshepo Masango Chéry ambitiously investigates examples of Black Christian churches in several different regions of the world during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to explore the connections as well as tensions between them as vehicles for challenging European dominance during that era. In doing so, she draws on extensive previous study of those cases by other scholars while adding some of her own original research and offering a valuable comparative analysis of the complex ways that each of the churches contributed to the development of transnational Black identity while also being a 'home-grown response to the global problem of white supremacy.'”
  - Stephen Volz, International Journal of African Historical Studies

"From the opening pages of Kingdom Come, Tshepo Masango Chéry makes it clear that this book will push boundaries. . . . It infuses the book with a sense that its people, ideas, and places transformed not just Masango Chéry’s world but all of ours." - Lauren V. Jarvis, American Historical Review

". . . this is an interesting new take on transnational religious movements in countries connected through the AOC." - Peter Limb, African Studies Review

"The book Kingdom Come provides an in-depth look at how religion became a powerful tool in the fight against racial and colonial oppression in South Africa and beyond. This book not only illustrates the interaction between religion and political freedom but also explores how religious movements inspired economic awareness among Black communities in South Africa and the African diaspora." - Anita Kusumawati, African Identities

". . . Tshepo Masango Chéry provides valuable insights into the role of religion in the struggle for freedom. . . . [A]n in-depth look at how religion became a powerful tool in the fight against racial and colonial oppression in South Africa and beyond." - Anita Kusumawati, African Identities

"A pioneering analysis of an important yet until now little-studied organisation" - Joel Cabrita, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"Highly recommended." - Catherine Higgs, Choice

"Masango Chéry develops a deep and sensitive biographical history, revealing the lives and worlds of key figures of African and Black church movements." - Jonathan Schoots, History of Religions